


Crazy Mad Sanity

by Leyenn



Series: Kinktober 2020 [5]
Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Breeding, Co-Parenting, Coming Out, Coming Out As A Threesome, Established Relationship, Kinktober, Kinktober 2020, Multi, OT3, Poly Parenting, Polyamory, Polyandry, Pregnancy, Secret Relationship, Team as Family, Threesome, Threesome – F/M/M, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:15:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26681236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leyenn/pseuds/Leyenn
Summary: It's going to be a crazy nine months, just not the crazy nine months they expected to have.Kinktober prompt: breeding.
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill
Series: Kinktober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911157
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	Crazy Mad Sanity

**Author's Note:**

> Starts somewhere before _Evolution_ in a season seven where super!Daniel already defeated Anubis before he descended, so there's none of that for them to worry about. *handwave*

It's not as if they haven't ever talked about it. She's known for as long as she remembers that Jack had wanted kids – had _wanted_ Charlie, and even if he'd never said it, it's obvious. He's been an amazing father even while she's known him, to Cassie and Reetou-Charlie and Merrin and any other kid that's ever crossed their paths. She'd have been lying to say she'd never looked at him with one of them and felt… not maternal, but something indefinable and warm and longing. At first just for him, to be able to have that more often when she knows it was ripped away from him; and then, somewhere between missions and laden glances and kisses and falling in love, to able to give him that back. 

She'd asked Daniel, after Kheb – not straight away, but she knows it was sometime soon after. _Did you ever want children?_

 _With Sha're?_ he'd asked, and she'd hugged him even tighter.

_With anyone._

_I never thought I'd get the choice,_ he'd said, and she hadn't known what to do other than kiss him and hold him and try to crawl into his skin with him to patch that echo of loneliness in his voice.

It was Jack who'd turned the question back on her. _Not yet,_ she'd said. _But… maybe,_ and it had been the truth. Maybe, one day, with them.

  


* * *

  


They've talked about it, they know where they all stand, they take precautions. They're all intelligent adults who understand how these things work, and if anyone were to ask that's exactly what they'd all say, and even believe it. 

She's been having shots for years; she'd prefer an implant, but the number of cultures that might notice and be suspicious of something subcutaneous makes her too wary. She doesn't imagine a serpent guard would take her at her word that her arm isn't either spying or likely to explode. Medications are out for much the same reason – their alien captors of the week aren't generally sympathetic to a need for antihistamines, let alone a strict birth control regimen.

But they have to be careful in other ways as well, have to weigh up the damage that material evidence could do to the careful, secret balance they're keeping. No condoms in the trash they bring back from off-world when they've been the only human beings on the planet, or after they've stayed over for what anyone but Teal'c thinks is just a team movie night. No prescriptions on her record that might provoke questions she can't answer. 

It's a risk, but it's a calculated one, and Sam's good at calculations. She worked out her fertility window early on – longhand, and cross-shredded the paper after – specifically so that they can avoid it, and working in a week of satisfying non-vaginal sex turned out to be easy when there are two guys involved to spread the options around. 

She's absolutely certain she isn't due a shot. _Certain_. Janet checks her before every mission, just one more prophylaxis to go with the rest. Just because she ostensibly has no time for a sex life doesn't mean something untoward won't happen. It's not until it's _this_ that's happening that she realises, she's just been treating it as one more tick in the box to make sure she doesn't come back to Earth carrying something she doesn't want.

That something she might want could come out of it, too, had almost slipped her mind. 

She's thirty-four years old, she has a doctorate and she saves the world for a living. She's supposed to know better than to end up in this position. 

She's not ashamed that her first thought is, _oh, shit._

Her second is much more practical, her mind already sliding into tactical thinking. It's easier that way. She needs a test: go to the drug store she doesn't usually use, pay in cash, dump the packaging when she stops for coffee on the way home, there'll be no trace. Nothing out of the ordinary. The weekend is three days away; she can have the guys over for a team night and it won't be any more suspicious than usual.

She makes it to Thursday afternoon before they corner her in her lab.

She's been keeping the door closed on the pretense of sensitive testing that she doesn't want to impact any other equipment on base, but suddenly she looks up and they're both standing there inside that locked door and, well. That whole plan has backfired spectacularly.

"Hi," Daniel says, with a smile. It's soft and a little hopeful and a little worried, and it rips right through her defences as if they're tissue paper. 

"Hi." She smiles gamely back at him. "Um, I'm kind of in the middle of -"

"We noticed," Jack says. He walks over to the desk and leans up against it, idly inspecting the components scattered across her workspace. "Looks like something well worth holing yourself up over."

 _Shit._ One of them, she can probably keep at bay for a few days, but not both. And not when she really doesn't even want to – when what she really wants is not to be alone in this.

"Sorry," she says, that accepted _I mean it, I am, but you knew what you were getting into_ tone she and Daniel both use, on those days when they really are just sunk into their work and not even trying to hide away from the world.

"It's okay." Daniel rests his forearms on the workbench, leaning toward her. "We just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," she says, too quickly. She can see instantly in his face that she's given herself away.

Jack pulls over a stool into the exact position that will hide his movements from the security camera, and reaches over to take her hand.

For thirty-six hours she's thrown herself into her work as hard as she can, tried not to take any more trips to the restroom than usual even though she seems to need to, and tried to work out every time she does go whether the prayers she's saying are to see blood, or keep finding nothing. For thirty-six hours she hasn't seen or spoken to either of them, and now Daniel's intent, intense blue eyes are on her and Jack's hand is in hers. 

This is exactly why she was trying not to see them here.

"You're not fine," Daniel says, almost a question but not. He's frowning now, and she wants to tell him something that will wipe it away, but she can't. She's not going to lie to them, not about something like this, but she doesn't even know for sure…

Daniel drags another stool over and sits down close. Puts his hand over hers, too. His voice is low, but not secretive, just gentle and worried. "Sam, what's wrong?"

She closes her eyes and tries, but she can't do it that way. The words won't come out. She opens them again and just looks at him, at Jack, helplessly.

Daniel squeezes her hand. "Sam, you're starting to scare me. Please tell us -"

"I might be pregnant," she whispers, and grips both of their hands back just as tightly, tries to ignore the tiny voice in her head that wants to beg them not to let go now she's said it.

She's not sure what she ever expected this conversation to be. What it is is a long moment of silence and both of them just looking at her, a moment that seems to go on for hours… and then Jack standing and turning away, sucking in a breath so loud she can feel it in her own chest with both hands over his face.

It's Daniel who speaks first: quiet, shocked, but with the barest touch of wonder that _hurts_. "Are you serious?"

She glares at him, suddenly, irrationally angry. "No, Daniel, I locked myself away in my lab for fun -"

"Well, you do, do that," he says, sounding amused for a moment, but then even that drops away. "Sam..."

"Yes, I'm serious." She feels so helpless. She's not used to that, she hates that. It's even worse that she doesn't know how either of them feel right now. "I wouldn't – I couldn't –"

That's when Jack turns back and says, very softly; "Did you take a test?"

She shakes her head. "But I'm late. By almost two weeks."

It sounds ridiculous to worry about, out loud, except they've been a team for seven years: even if they weren't sleeping together, both Jack and Daniel know her cycle is like clockwork. She's as likely to be handed a tampon or a Naproxen from one of them off-world as she is to grab one from her own pack.

"Okay." Jack takes another breath in, checks his watch. "We should have been off the clock hours ago. Come on, we're going home. We'll stop at the drug store on the way."

"I was going to," she starts, faintly. Damn it, why can't she just handle this? "At the weekend."

"Will it work now?" Daniel asks. She nods. 

"Then let's go," Jack says, and she can't argue with that even if she wanted to.

  


* * *

  


It's positive.

She should stop sitting here, she thinks, vaguely. They're waiting for her; she told them she'd bring it out when she was done. Instead she's been sitting here on the edge of her bathtub for fifteen minutes staring at the piece of plastic in her hands. 

_It's positive._

__She feels paralyzed. She's not sure she can do it – stand up, unlock the door, open it, walk to the bedroom. Look them both in the eyes and tell them.

_It's positive._

__A fist knocks on the door. "Carter, open up."

She blinks. Somehow she hasn't calculated for this scenario, that one of them comes to her first. It feels like time shouldn't be passing outside, while she's still trying to get a handle on this.

Jack knocks again, harder. "Carter. _Sam._ You've been in there half an hour and Daniel's about to have kittens of his own, now open the door or I'm breaking it down."

That seems a little extreme, she thinks. In slow motion she stands up, takes the two steps to the door. Slides the bolt back.

Jack pushes the door inward, careful but firm enough for it to swing open. She steps back out of the way and then they're just standing there, looking at each other across the threshold of her bathroom.

He looks down at the test in her hand. Back up. "You okay?" 

She laughs, aware as she hears it that she sounds a little unhinged. "The truth?"

"I'd prefer it."

"I have no idea." That's it, the complete truth. She has no idea how she feels. No idea how she should feel. No idea what she's going to do. 

Jack takes a careful step and reaches, very slowly as if she's holding a grenade and might pull the pin at any moment, toward her hand. "Can I…?"

She raises her hand to meet his, watches from somewhere far away as that simple piece of plastic passes between them like a baton in a relay race. Maybe it's his turn to feel this… whatever this is. Maybe he'll take it from her and she can think clearly again about what this means.

_It's positive._

She watches him take it. Watches him look, and look again, and stare at it for long seconds that tick by heavily in her head.

"Daniel." It's not quite a shout, but it's easily loud enough to call down the hall. "You're gonna want to come here," he adds, still loud, and looks up at her.

There are tears in his eyes.

"Oh, god." She sinks back down onto the side of the tub, gripping the enamel hard enough that her fingers hurt. "Oh, god…"

It's positive, and _Jack_ …

What has she _done?_

"Sam?" Daniel doesn't stop at the door – of course he doesn't. Any threshold that makes Jack wary, Daniel will dive through without a second thought. He drops onto his knees in front of her, puts his hand on her thigh. "Sam? Was it...?"

Jack takes two more slow steps in, until he's standing over Daniel's shoulder, and holds it out.

Daniel's eyes go wide, stunned, the same look he gets when he's staring at something huge and mind-boggling and magnificent. _Meaning of life stuff_ , she remembers, insanely, and despite herself she feels a giggle bubble up in her throat. 

Daniel's hand tightens gently on her knee. "Sam…"

She shakes her head, wordless because she doesn't know the words. She's just giggling, a lost and unpleasant-tasting sound that shifts between one breath and the next into crying, and she can't stop it, any of it –

Daniel surges up onto his feet and pulls her with him, crushes her into his arms. "Shhh, Sam, don't cry, don't _cry,_ we'll work this out, please don't cry…"

She digs her fingers into his back, buries her face in his shoulder, and it finally tumbles out along with the tears. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened, I'm sorry…" 

Jack's " _What?_ " tangles with Daniel's "oh my god, _why_?" and then she's being spun around in Daniel's arms and Jack is turning her to face him, Daniel pressing up against her back instead, the two of them surrounding her completely.

Jack's eyes are blazing, with so much emotion it's threatening to spill over and drown her. "Don't you dare," he whispers, voice thick and raw. "Don't you _dare,_ don't you _fucking dare be sorry-_ "

"Jack," Daniel says. Gentling, warning, and Jack drags in a harsh breath but goes quiet, just holding her. For a moment, just a moment, she doesn't think at all, and she feels almost calm. 

"Sam," Daniel murmurs in her ear, gentle and coaxing. "Why are you sorry? Do you think Jack's upset?"

"Oh, sure, put it on me," Jack says, but there's something infinitely soft behind that look in his eyes and somehow he's smiling. Daniel huffs quietly; she can feel him glaring at Jack over her shoulder.

"Well then tell her what you're thinking, for god's sake, because I don't think we're all even on the same _chapter_ here." 

"You're worried," she says, trying to make him understand that she does know what he's thinking, of course she does. But Jack just… looks at her, staring, as if he's suddenly noticed something he can't believe. 

"Oh, for crying out loud, of course I'm worried. But if you think I'm _upset_ …" He looks at Daniel, for a moment. There's a helplessness in his eyes that she can feel, that feels the same as her own, when he looks back at her. "If you think I wouldn't be ecstatic to have a kid with you, then I'm the one who needs to be sorry."

"Sam," Daniel murmurs, a catch in her name. "You're pregnant." His arms tighten gently around her as he says it, and suddenly there's nothing but wonder and such love in his voice. "Oh my god, you're _pregnant._ With our baby. One of us made a baby inside you."

He says it as if it's something incredible. As if her body has done something other than somehow fuck up their team and their careers and the program and their lives. As if maybe he thinks this is a _good thing._

"Sam, listen to me." Jack leans back a little – but only to cradle her face in his hands, so tenderly. "If you don't want a kid right now, that's okay. If you're just scared right now then that's okay, too." He wipes the tears away with a gentle brush of each thumb. "It's your choice, we'll do whatever you want, but you have to understand that the last thing I want is for you to be sorry about this."

Something feels like it's cracking inside her. There's something under the shell of distance, worry, and fear she's been building for the last day and a half, if not the last week: that same something she can see in Jack's eyes, that's in Daniel's voice when he kisses behind her ear and whispers; "Do you want this baby, Sam?"

She can't lie to them. She bites her lip and nods.

"Oh thank god," Jack breathes, breaking into a smile that's _radiant_ , there can't be another word for it, in the instant before he kisses her and that shell around her bottled-up happiness and hope cracks entirely apart. 

"Why don't we take this somewhere a bit more comfortable than the bathroom?" Daniel suggests, a smile in his voice, and Jack grins against her lips.

"See, with two geniuses like you? We're gonna be just fine."

  


* * *

  


"I really don't know what happened," she says. She feels a little more calm, now, but she needs them to talk about this. "I'm up to date on shots, I know I am."

"Nothing's perfect," Jack says, from behind her. She feels the mattress shift as he settles in. "Guess if anyone was gonna beat the odds, it was gonna be us."

She has to laugh at that, because he's right. They're practically the poster children for it. She shouldn't be so surprised.

Jack rubs his hands together quickly behind her back. "Now that's good to hear," he murmurs, plants a quick kiss before settling his warmed hands on her shoulders. When his fingers press lightly, testing, she tenses at the pain even before he hisses quietly. "Jeez, Sam." 

"Everything okay?" Daniel sets his glasses on the nightstand. 

"Aside from the crazy amount of stress right here," Jack says, rubbing along her shoulders. Daniel gives her a gentle frown. 

"You've been worrying about this all week," he says, sitting down to mirror Jack in front of her. "Haven't you?"

She can't really pinpoint when the idle _what if_ turned into the tentative _it couldn't_ _be_ and then the earnest _oh shit_ , but he's probably right. And of course, she doesn't even have to admit it out loud for them to know.

"Okay." Jack seats himself against the head of the bed, beside her instead of behind. "Hit us with it. Everything you're thinking, I want all of it."

"You don't," she says, without thinking. Jack reaches out and takes her hand.

"Everything," he says, firmly. "Get it out. You need to."

"Everything," she echoes, faintly.

"Everything," Daniel agrees. 

She shakes her head. "No, I mean… I'm thinking about everything. Us being court martialled and discharged, leaving SG-one, telling my dad, Jolinar's protein marker – being _pregnant_ , what to buy, choosing a name, choosing a _last_ name, giving birth–" 

"Okay, okay, I get it." Jack sighs, but his smile is still affectionate, even indulgent. "You wanna know what I'm thinking?"

She more than wants to. She needs to. "Oh god, yes. Please."

"That I love you." 

He doesn't _get_ it. She rolls her eyes, tugging her hand away. "Jack–"

"That I love you," he repeats, louder, "and we can handle all of that, no problem, the three of us, so long as you forget acting like it's something you did wrong." He replaces his hand, and this time she doesn't pull away. "I want to have this kid. Daniel wants to have this kid." 

" _Yes_ ," Daniel says. Jack smiles at him.

"Both of us want this. With you." He's so sincere, gives her wrist a gentle squeeze. " _With_ you, you got that? All of that stuff, we're all thinking about it. We'll tackle it together. You don't get to worry about all of it without us."

"We're a team, Sam." Daniel puts his hand over theirs. "We'll always be a team, no matter what. You didn't do anything that we didn't do."

"Now that's definitely true." Jack arches a suggestive eyebrow that makes her smile, despite herself. "And you're not going to. We're gonna tell your dad together, we're gonna choose a name together, we're gonna be there when you give birth. If you think we're missing a second of any of it, you need to think again."

"You know this took one of us, too," Daniel says, in the same calm tone.

"I know."

"You know if your shot failed, that's not your fault."

She tries not to blush, that he knows so easily what's really been in her head. "I know," she manages to say, but she can hear the tremor of reticence in her own voice and she knows they will, too. 

"I'll talk to Hammond," Jack says, with another careful squeeze of her hand, and a hot ache like a knife lodges sharply in her chest. 

Daniel looks at him. "Think you can get away without a court martial?"

"If I retire, probably."

She can't help it, she looks away. They're so pragmatic about it – as if Jack isn't talking about ending his career with one conversation. As if he's not looking at charges twice over for loving them both, which is bad enough, but what really hurts is how proud she is that he's so willing to do this for her, for them. For their _child._ It was a risk from the beginning, one she's never regretted taking for herself, not for a second – but facing it now, knowing what he's going to have to do, is so much harder than she ever thought it would be…

"Sam." But it's not Jack, it's Daniel, his voice tender but reassuring around her name. She makes herself turn her head, and he's looking at her. "I know," he says, and she doesn't doubt that he does. Of course he does. "I know," he repeats, softer. She can hear the strain in it. "But this is worth it."

"I know." She tries to smile at him. "I know, it is, it's just…"

Jack looks her squarely in the eyes, giving her a calm smile as if he's trying to coax hers into being. "We knew there might come a point when I had to choose. It was just never going to be a choice." 

"You could," she hears herself say. A last, desperate attempt to make it better, to fix this, to put everything back where it was. "You could – we can tell them –"

He raises an eyebrow. "What? That I wasn't there?"

"That it's Daniel's." She can feel her mind starting to race, hunting through the possible scenarios, looking for the equation that solves this. "That you had no idea, that we never told you–" 

" _Sam_." That calm slips out of his eyes: Jack shifts onto his knees in front of her, both hands on her arms as if he might actually shake her, except it's him she can feel trembling. "Stop, please just… stop," and oh god, she can hear tears in his voice. Daniel puts a hand on his thigh, quiet but present, but Jack's eyes are only on her. "Sam," he says, hoarsely. "Oh, Sam…"

"It's not fair for you to lose everything," she whispers, desperately.

"Everything?" His voice is raw but he _laughs_ , like she's told a joke. "You think…" He shakes his head. His eyes are so bright, full of all that emotion she can hear in his voice. "Sam, you have to know... I'd choose a kid with the two of you over almost anything. It's sure as hell worth more to me than a few more years on my career." 

"You're serious." She can see it, in his eyes. She can _see_ it. "You mean that - you'd give up going through the gate, having command –"

"To be a father to your kid? In a damned heartbeat." He strokes both hands down her arms, takes her hands in his. "Let me talk to Hammond. I'll tell him the truth, offer to retire quietly if he doesn't get the UCMJ involved with you. Hey," he squeezes her fingers when she tries to look away. "You know how much he cares about you, how important you are to the program. He'll do everything he can to take it. We've earned enough favors for that." He grins, suddenly. "Hell, with my luck he'll try and contract me back as a civilian anyway. You know no one's letting me get out that easily."

"The pay's better," Daniel says, obviously teasing but still it makes her laugh, a little.

"And if he doesn't want me without the uniform?" Jack shrugs easily. "Then I'm your dependent care plan. I can live with that."

She almost can't believe what he's saying, what he's offering… but she can see it, so clearly. Coming home – coming home _with Daniel_ to their house, to Jack holding a baby, their baby…

She takes a deep breath and smiles. She can't not, with that image in her head. "Okay. Yes." 

The joy in Jack's eyes rises like sunlight, sends a rush of warmth through her. "Yeah? You're sure."

"Yes." She pushes him back, then, up against the head of the bed so she can climb into his lap and kiss him, still smiling, feeling like she might not stop. "I love you," she tells him, pushing his hair back with her fingertips, and she's never meant it more. "I want you to have this, Jack, I want…" Her throat feels hot with too much feeling. "I know you were such an amazing father," she says, tearful with how true that is. "I want you to have that again. I want that with you."

Jack buries his face in the crook of her neck and hugs her to him. "I told you," he says, quiet and honest in her ear. "Almost anything."

The enormity of it all is overwhelming; the thought of doing it together almost more so, but in a different way, something warm and all-encompassing – the same sensation she gets when they step through the gate together, just the four of them, but magnified a thousandfold. She feels the tears escape, can't even tell if they're happy or sad or just because everything feels so intense, right now.

Daniel strokes her hair, kisses the back of her head. Jack leans back and tilts his head to look her in the eyes, gives her the softest smile.

"Ah, come here," he murmurs, that soft command she can never resist. She doesn't even want to: she wants the strength of his arms around her, the proof that this is really happening, and he's so warm and comfortable that she just nestles in against his chest and tucks her head into his shoulder, smiles when she feels his lips against her hair.

Daniel smiles, too, at them both; settles in close at Jack's side and puts a hand, very gently, just below her navel. "There's a baby in here," he murmurs, and she's not sure if it's the sound of his voice or the delicacy of that touch that makes her skin tingle. 

"It's not exactly a baby yet," she says, teasing, quickly wiping her face with one hand. "We've got a while to go for that."

"That's okay." He slides his hand between her top and waistband, his palm warm where it settles against her skin. "Take your time in there," he murmurs, and she can't help giggling.

"Daniel." 

"I keep thinking." His hand stays still, just moving with her as she breathes. "I don't know which I want more… to have made a life with you, or to know the two of you made a life together."

Tears spring to her eyes again. She strokes his hair tenderly. "Oh, Daniel…"

"I know it's going to be tough, changing so much and so quickly. And I know, I get off lightly compared to both of you, but I want you to know I'll be here." He rubs his thumb against her stomach, but he looks at Jack with so much love in his eyes. "If they're biologically yours, I don't care. I love you and I'll love them as if…" But he stops, shaking his head. "No, not as if they were mine. They are mine. Ours, Jack. I promise."

"I know." There's a lump in Jack's throat, she can hear it. He gets a hand behind Daniel's neck and tugs him in for a kiss, the kind of kiss that makes warmth blossom inside her just seeing them like that. "I love you," Jack murmurs, his forehead tipped against Daniel's, so close she can feel them both breathing. "Both of you. It doesn't matter who made this kid and who didn't, I'm gonna be their dad just the same."

"This is the luckiest kid in the world," Daniel says, with a smile, his hand still right there over where their child is growing inside her, and she has to agree completely. She can't believe she got this lucky, to have this, to get to _keep_ this. That whatever else happens next, this is her future, the two people she loves most in the world both being fathers to her child. 

"Hell, I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling pretty lucky, too," Jack says with a grin, and kisses her. 

  


* * *

  


There's too much sunlight when she wakes up – it startles her, suddenly, as if her body's just realised it shouldn't still be in bed, and she jolts awake. Jack's arm shifts around her back, hugging her closer.

"Hi."

She blinks into the light, lifting her head to smile sleepily up at him. He's sprawled on his back with her tucked up against his side; he looks like he's been awake for a while. "Hi." The bed feels empty behind her. "Daniel?"

"He went out to get breakfast. And he's gonna pick up a couple more tests."

That's a good idea, she supposes. It's probably a random one-in-x chance that let this happen, it's best to not have a random one-in-x chance that the one test she's taken is faulty. 

"I called us in for the day," Jack says mildly. She sits up with a start.

"What?"

"It's nearly ten." He points at the clock. "You're exhausted. I told Hammond we had some shitty takeout and we're all sick as dogs."

It's not the worst excuse. "Did he buy it?"

"He didn't question it." Jack shrugs. "I'll take that. Come back here," he adds, fingers lightly curling around her wrist. "I know you want to be all _Carter_ about this, but can you just hold off until Daniel's back and we've at least had coffee?" 

She glares half-seriously, but happily curls back down against him. He's warm and comfortable, after all, and he's right: she's definitely been more tired than usual, a sign she probably should have noticed before now. 

"You realise I'm going to be pretty 'Carter' about this whole thing," she says, snuggling into his shoulder. Jack snorts.

"Yes, I realise that." His voice softens as he nuzzles her hair. "That's why you're gonna be a great mother. You just gotta let me tempt you into some time-honored O'Neill coping strategies every so often, too."

She has to admit that sounds nice. "Hmm. If they all involve lazing in bed on a work day, then I think I can handle that."

His fingers slip under her top, tease across her ribs. "Some of them involve a few other things…"

She giggles, stroking a hand up his chest in return. "Would those be the same kind of things that got us into this in the first place?"

"Could be." He tugs her up a little on top of him, and she shivers delightfully as his fingertips graze that particularly sensitive spot in the hollow of her hip, wandering downward. "Can I…?"

She settles her hips on top of his as an answer, stroking her fingers into his hair. His eyes are dark and glittering already as he looks up at her, completely open, relaxed and unflinching from the way she knows she's looking at him, too. "I love you," she murmurs, smiling down at him with a quiet hum as his hand settles between her thighs. Jack can be anything from so rough it leaves bruises to so tender it makes her heart ache, but right now he's just gentle, that one hand curving to fit perfectly against her.

"I just want to touch you," he murmurs, and she has to laugh softly.

"Mmm, well, I'm pretty sure that's what you're doing right now…"

Jack chuckles. "So I am." He curls his fingers a little. "We made a kid doing this," he says, a fingertip just slipping inside her, and it's so, so sweet she feels tears burn behind her eyes. 

"I think there were other body parts involved in that," she teases with a smile, ignoring the tightness in her throat and leaning down to rest her forehead against his. Jack laughs, a low rumble through his chest beneath her. 

"There were _definitely_ other parts involved," he says, with a devilish smile of his own, adding a second fingertip. 

"Feels like they might be interested now, too," she says, shifting her hips a little. Jack groans quietly under another laugh, his other hand curling gently behind her neck to hold her where she is.

"Not right now. Just you." She can feel the heat in his eyes, but he's still smiling up at her. "Just… I want to watch you."

The thought, the way he says it, both make her shiver with the need that's already building quietly under his fingers. " _Jack_ …" He's just teasing, with just those two fingertips, gentle and slow and a little maddening, only a little further each time. Even rocking her hips doesn't persuade him to go faster, just makes his smile brighter.

"That feel good?"

"Mmm." It feels incredible, perfect, the feeling of only his eyes fixed on her and his fingers teasing into her. With so little foreplay she can feel it even more intensely, such a satisfying stretch around his fingers as they push deeper. "You know it does."

"I love watching you." There's a rough note in his voice now, dropping lower. "I love you," with another slow thrust of his fingers, and she has to bite her lip not to moan, it feels so good… 

"Isn't this what got us into this?"

She laughs a little breathlessly, turning toward Daniel's voice. He's leaning against the door sipping from a takeout coffee and smiling, watching them with soft eyes. 

"That's what I said…" Jack's fingers push deeper again, just far enough now to find that perfect spot inside her, and she lets out a soft gasp. "Mmm… but Jack had a _really_ good counter-argument…"

"I can see that." Daniel's eyes glitter with desire as he puts his coffee down on the dresser. "Room for one more?"

Jack flashes that bright, hot smile. "Always." 

Daniel smiles back at him and climbs back onto the bed, straddling Jack's thighs behind her and pressing a kiss between her shoulders. Jack's hand moves from her neck, and she feels him reach behind her for Daniel instead. He's warm and heavy at her back, holding himself up with one hand enough not to weigh her down, the other stroking down her stomach… to pause, gentle and still, right where it was when she fell asleep between them last night.

"How're you doing?" He nuzzles the side of her neck: she feels him grin when she shivers between them. "Mm, or is a better question how Jack's doing?"

She laughs again, heat curling through her. "Mmm… good, really good…"

"Let's see if I can make it even better," he murmurs, lips right up to her ear. "Oh, and when you're done, I picked up pastries from that place on Third you like."

Only Daniel can have a voice like pure sex when he's talking about _pastries._ "You two are just going to use this as an excuse to spoil me," she mutters, smiling.

Jack chuckles, all innocence even with his fingers inside her. "Would we do that, Daniel?"

"Mmm, we might," Daniel argues.

"Oh?"

"Well, isn't that what we're doing right now?"

Jack grins, his fingers all the way inside her now. "Good point."

"And you are the mother of our child," Daniel adds, that same openly sensual murmur in her ear. "I think that means we get to spoil you all we like," and as if to prove the point, that's the moment his fingers find her clit, and the pressure Jack's been building so slowly is suddenly a desperate need for them both, hot and hard and _now_. 

"Oh, god, yes, please…"

"Yeah?" Jack doesn't speed up, but she knows he can feel what Daniel's doing, too; the way his fingers are moving on her clit, firm and fast. "Oh yeah, that's it, look at you, you're gorgeous. You're _gorgeous_ , Sam," and suddenly there's a catch in his voice. "You are the most amazing woman in the world," and she can't help the split-second image of Sara that flits through her mind, but even beyond that she can't doubt the sincerity in his voice, the look in his eyes…

"The most amazing," Daniel echoes, hot in her ear, a kind of wonder in his voice that she's never heard before. "You're making us a _baby_ , Sam, our baby, do you know how incredible that is? I never thought…" He buries his face against the nape of her neck, but his hand doesn't stop and that's how she comes apart, on Jack's fingers and under Daniel's with a soft cry. She lets herself fall into it completely, shaking and gasping with every wave of pleasure they're drawing out of her, until she's utterly spent and she can't even hold herself up: all she can do is collapse against Jack's chest with Daniel warm and heavy on top of her, held between them as securely as she's ever been. 

  


* * *

  


Daniel sits with her this time, in her earlier spot on the edge of the tub while she pees on the stick, wipes, washes her hands, puts the toilet lid down. She should have done this the first time, she thinks. It's so much easier with him here. It's not as if they have any boundaries between them after this long: if anything it's a novelty to pee in front of him in an actual toilet. 

He takes her hand as she sits down, and this time she doesn't feel that distant, vague feeling. She's scared and worried, but she's excited too. 

Daniel gives her fingers a quick squeeze. "You okay?"

She nods, looking up from the test in her hand. "Yeah. I think so." He smiles, and she suddenly needs… she just needs this to be theirs, this moment. "Would you go find Jack?" She turns the test over and puts it down beside the sink. "I won't look until you're both here, I promise."

He gets it, she can tell. He leans over, kisses her, brushes the back of his fingers across her cheek. "Sure. I'll be right back."

She doesn't look, even though she's counting in her head and knows exactly when it should start to show a result. Thirty seconds later, Daniel's carefully picking it up without turning it over, while Jack sits down and tugs her over to him. He puts his arm around her, settles his hand on Daniel's thigh when Daniel sits down close on her other side. Sam puts her hand over his. Daniel worms an arm in behind her, tangling them all together, and holds out the test over her lap with his other hand.

Jack takes hold of the other end and flips it over.

It's positive, but this time Sam doesn't stare at it, doesn't think at all – she turns Jack's head to her and kisses him because she's feeling so much she can't get it out any other way. She only breaks it to turn to Daniel – who's right there waiting, watching, takes her face in his hands and her mouth with his the exact same way. Jack's lips fall to her neck, both of them kissing her until she's breathless and her skin is humming with it, until she almost forgets why they're doing this on the edge of her bathtub of all places. It's her laugh that makes Daniel stop, in the end, grinning at her with bright, tearful blue eyes.

"I love you," he says, sounding half broken, almost disbelieving. "Both of you," as Jack raises his head and presses a kiss into her hair. "All of you," barely a whisper but so fierce, and that's what suddenly makes the wave of emotion crash down over her.

She covers her mouth with her hands; they're shaking. "Oh my god." It feels _real._ Huge and insane and _real._ "I'm pregnant. Guys, we're going to have a baby."

"We need to tell Teal'c he's gonna be an uncle," Jack says, grinning madly. "What's 'uncle' in Goa'uld?"

" _Sen_ ," Daniel says, almost absently. "Though it kind of just means 'male relative', it's not the most intricate language."

"It'll do." 

"First we need to tell Janet." Daniel hugs her gently against him. "Have her check you out, just make sure everything's okay, make a plan so you don't have to worry. I know you're thinking about Jolinar," he says, and she's so grateful that she can't even find words, just cups her hand against his cheek and smiles at him.

"Let's see if she's up for a house call." Jack puts a hand lightly on her stomach. "This food poisoning might be something more serious, I think we need a medical opinion."

Daniel chuckles. "I'll call her. And we should actually eat."

It seems like tempting fate to order in, so Jack makes three rounds of grilled cheese while Sam curls against Daniel on the couch, listening to him expertly wheedle and fake to Janet until she agrees to come check on them, even on a Friday afternoon. Sam tries to feel bad about the lie, but she keeps looking at the two pregnancy tests lying side-by-side on the coffee table. She's pretty certain Janet will forgive them, for this.

She doesn't realise where her hand is resting, low on her stomach, until Daniel covers it with his own. She looks up at him and he's smiling, quiet but intent on her.

"You're going to look beautiful, you know."

She laughs. "I'm probably not going to feel that way."

"Jack and I can help with that." He kisses her temple. "We're pretty good at that, aren't we?"

"Help with what?" Jack hands them a plate each, stealing a sandwich from Daniel's as soon as he has it. 

"Making sure Sam knows how amazing she looks for the next nine months."

Jack grins. "That sounds like a mission we're pretty qualified for."

They're more than qualified: she's never felt more beautiful than when they're both lavishing attention on her, two pairs of eyes and hands all over her, two soft mouths and warm bodies against hers. She can only imagine how she's going to feel, when she's more than obviously pregnant with their baby on top of that.

Jack sits down at her other side and kicks his feet up onto the coffee table. "You call Fraiser?"

"She's on her way over in an hour or so." Daniel takes a bite, scooping up runaway cheese with his fingers. 

"Okay." Jack puts a hand lightly on her thigh. "And you're ready for this?"

She thinks about it, for just a second. Janet will walk in here, in an hour, and then they won't be able to go back from it or change their minds. Someone else will know – that they're lovers, that they've broken all the rules, that she's carrying their child. That she's going to _have_ their child.

 _I'm ready,_ she thinks, but something else entirely comes off her tongue. "Would you stay?"

Jack's brow creases into a frown; Daniel makes a quiet sound of confusion.

"Of course we're staying," he starts to say, and she realises how that must have sounded.

"No, I mean…" It's tricky sometimes when they're on each side of her, she never knows which way to look first. "Stay here," she repeats, to Jack. "Until the baby's born."

They share a long, silent look, across her: she's watching Jack, but she knows what's on Daniel's face just the same. 

"Sam," Daniel starts, slowly. "I don't think we can do that."

"If we move in here, we're not moving out," Jack finishes. "And sure as _hell_ not when our kid arrives."

"Is that what you want?" Daniel asks it gently, but his eyes are sparkling when she looks at him. 

She can barely breathe. "Yes. Do you?"

Daniel grins. "You'll have to cope with a grill in the back yard," he says. "Or we're living on sandwiches every time it's Jack's turn to cook."

She grins back, turning to give Jack a hopeful smile. "I think I can live with that?" 

"This place is the largest anyway," Jack says with a shrug – and kisses her, hard, his own grin pressed against her lips. And that's it, so _easy_. She abandons her plate to wrap her arms around his neck, with a soft, delighted laugh when he pushes her back against Daniel and they're suddenly a pile of limbs and smiles and kisses. 

Complaining playfully, Daniel rescues his plate off to the side and takes another bite of his sandwich – and then, with a teasing look, tears off a bite and dangles it over her mouth with greasy fingers. She opens her mouth and happily lets him feed her – it might not be steak, but Jack makes a pretty good grilled cheese, and she's eating for two now – and that's how they are when the door chimes, Daniel's thighs trapped under her back with Jack on top of her, Daniel balancing a plate in the dip of Jack's spine and trading off kisses in exchange for feeding them the remains of lunch.

Daniel wipes his hand on Jack's ass with a wicked grin, earning a "Hey!" and a glare as Jack climbs ungracefully off her and helps her upright. "I'll go. You clean up."

"Yes sir," she says, mischievous just to get that playful glare for herself too. 

"You'll miss that," Daniel teases as he heads for the sink.

She flashes a wicked smile of her own over the back of the couch. "Nothing says I can't still call him sir on our own time." From down the hall there's the familiar sound of the door opening, the murmur of Jack's voice and Janet's. 

"I hate you," Daniel says, in a tone that blatantly makes him a liar, handing her a tissue as he sits back down. She smirks at him, but there's something growing tight in her chest – something he can see, she realises, when he takes her hand and laces his fingers between her own to hold on as tight as he can.

"I _love_ you," he whispers. "Jack too. So much."

She squeezes his fingers tightly, and it loosens that something inside her, at least a little.

"You look well, for someone who according to the General was emptying his stomach all night," she hears Janet say. Daniel winces a little beside her.

"Yeah, about that…" is Jack's reply, meeting her eyes as he walks back in.

Janet sounds a little irritated. "Colonel, if you called me out here for a prank…" 

"Not a prank." Jack moves behind Sam to lean against the back of the couch, very close, and points to the coffee table. 

She watches with a pounding heart, Daniel's pulse just as fast against her wrist: watches Janet look and sees the moment she understands, her eyes widening, a look of stunned surprise on her face. 

Janet looks at her, first. "And not food poisoning," she says, slowly.

Daniel makes an apologetic face. "No. Sorry."

"We did two," she says, as if that's not obvious. "Just to be sure." 

Janet sinks down into the closest chair, her face a mask of astonishment. "Well, this is… not the house call I expected."

She laughs wryly, she can't help it. "Yeah, we know."

"Are you..." Janet pauses. "Sam, I need to ask. Did this happen consensually?"

Daniel's grip goes like steel: she feels him tense at just the thought, can practically hear Jack's teeth clenching. She rubs her thumb over Daniel's soothingly. They know, of course they do – it's the thing that terrifies them both almost as much as losing her, the risk of seeing her hurt that way, but she can tell by their silence that they understand why it's a question as much as she does. Of course it would be: as far as the world and SGC knows she's as single as they come, barely has a social life, only meets new men when she's on other planets, and now she's sitting here telling Janet she's pregnant with only her team around her. It's almost the more obvious conclusion.

A conclusion she's been protecting herself from for years, but forty-eight hours and it's a gut punch to be asked. That's when she feels it in her _soul_ that they've made exactly the right choice, because the idea that Janet thinks this child is anything other than the product of Jack and Daniel loving her is physically painful.

"Yes," is all she can say, aware it comes out a little fierce. "I swear. I mean, it wasn't planned, but yes. Absolutely."

Relief fills Janet's expression. Sam hears the breath she lets out, sees her shoulders relax. She offers a questioning smile. "And you're happy? This a good thing?"

 _More than happy_ , she wants to say. _How could I not be?_ She looks up at Jack, holds Daniel's hand against her thigh. "Yeah. Yes. It's a good thing."

Janet's smile turns bright and warm. "Okay. So I'm guessing you want me to give you a physical?"

She nods, relieved herself that that's all it takes. "I've got naquadah and Goa'uld proteins in my blood." Not that Janet needs the reminder. But it's good, cathartic almost, to actually say the words. "Not to mention everything else I've been exposed to over the years… I don't know what effect that might have on a baby. I just want to know everything's okay."

"We, want to know," Daniel corrects gently, and Jack doesn't say anything but his hand on her shoulder is a silent agreement. She smiles at Daniel, ducks her head sheepishly when he gives her a chiding look.

Janet gives her that bedside-manner face, confident and reassuring that she's got this in hand. "Well, I'll take some blood and urine samples for now, we'll do blood pressure and all the standard tests, but you should come to the infirmary on Monday for a complete workup. Do you know how far along you might be?"

"Five, six weeks, maybe." It feels strange putting a timeline on it. What was she doing, six weeks ago? What planet was she on when this life inside her decided to take root? 

"That's a little early to tell much, but we can get a baseline to start from, and set a schedule for check-ups." Janet sits back, looking a little tentative. "There is one more thing… It would be helpful to know who the father is."

She wants to say it - she wants to _shout_ it, and it's definitely not reluctance stopping her. But when she opens her mouth, she suddenly realises she doesn't know what words to use. She looks at Daniel, helplessly.

"Ah… we don't know," he says, into the lengthy pause. "Exactly. Well, I figure she means genetically," he adds, at Jack's blatant _Daniel?_ expression. 

"Ours," Jack says, succinctly, firmly. "It's ours."

The look Janet gives him is approving, but long-suffering. "That's a sweet sentiment, Colonel, but I do mean genetically. If you can tell me," she turns back to Sam. "It would help me to know if he's from Earth, at least. A genetic workup would be ideal, but if he's not in the picture…"

"Ah, no," Daniel says. "Jack didn't mean it quite that way."

Janet looks at him. "I'm not sure I understand."

He's gripping her hand so hard now it almost hurts, and Jack's arm is tense behind the hand on her shoulder: she realises they're as nervous as she is. "It's mine, or Jack's," Daniel says, as steady as he can. She wonders if Janet can hear the faint tremor in his voice. "We just don't know which."

Janet's eyebrows go up. She doesn't seem to know which of them to look at. "And this wasn't something that happened at work? No… alien influence that you missed out of the reports…?"

It's as fair a question as whether she was forced. Given their past history, actually a fairer question. They could even have tried to pass it off that way. She wonders if Janet's trying to give her an out, if she wants to do that.

"No, we're pretty sure it happened the normal way," Jack says. Sam feels a blush heat her cheeks: when she glances at Daniel there's a sparkle in his eyes as if he's thinking very much about the _normal way_ , and she has to resist the urge to elbow him.

Janet looks perplexed, slightly incredulous. "And you don't remember who…?"

"I hadn't tried," she admits honestly, and that suddenly makes her laugh, that she _hadn't even thought_. She looks at Daniel squarely this time, then up at Jack. "It didn't even occur to me to try. Is that weird?"

"Not even a little bit," Jack says, grinning. 

"I hadn't either," Daniel says.

Janet looks completely bewildered now. "Well, _yes_ , I think it is?" 

Jack chuckles. "I don't think you're quite getting it, doc." 

"It literally could have been either one of us," Daniel says, with that _I'm Daniel Jackson, we come in peace_ smile he uses when he's trying to explain how the universe is actually so much larger than one tiny world.

"Unless you can time it to the minute," Jack adds, helpfully. "It's not like the little buggers are different colors or something."

Daniel rolls his eyes affectionately. "I'm sure Janet wanted that image, Jack."

"Oh. _Oh,_ " Janet's voice goes up an octave in surprise. "You're...?"

"Yes," Daniel says. 

"Surprise," Jack adds, cheerfully.

"Teal'c's the only one who knows," Sam says. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I wanted to." She's nearly said it, so many times in so many ways, for so many reasons. She doesn't have that many friends that she can hide parts of her life from them and it not ache. "We just didn't want to risk anyone else – if you'd known, and we'd been found out…"

"Don't ask, don't tell," Janet says, quietly, in understanding. She looks up at Jack.

"I'm quitting," he says. It still sends a pang through Sam's heart, but he doesn't sound like it hurts. His thumb rubs against her collarbone like a kiss. 

"We're going to talk to the General," she adds, trying to explain. Somehow telling Janet makes it real, this plan hatched in half-darkness in the middle of the night in the secrecy of her bed. "Whatever Jack can get. Retirement, hopefully. I know, if they don't discharge me outright I'll have to take a non-combat position, but I can easily move to the lab full time…"

"You've actually thought about this." Janet sits back slowly, taking it in. "You're going to do this." 

"We are," Daniel says. "I know it seems crazy, but we know what we're doing. We want to…" He stops. "We're _going_ to have a baby. The three of us, together."

 _Together._

_The three of us, together._

__Sam thinks about that, really lets herself think about it in the light of day for the first time. A home that's theirs: a child that's theirs. A baby with Jack's smile or Daniel's eyes. A child that Jack can teach street hockey and curling, that Daniel can help with homework and sing to sleep at night...

She smiles at Janet, with as much honest emotion as she can. Not as her doctor, but her friend, the best mother she knows. "We know it won't be easy, but this is what we want." She tugs Daniel's hand a little, reaches up to touch Jack's on her shoulder, can't keep herself from grinning like an idiot. She gets to say this, now. She gets to tell her best friend; "We love each other and I'm having their baby, how could I not want that?"

Janet laughs, a happy kind of surprise in the sound. "Well then… before we start your exam, I guess there's only one more thing."

She frowns a little, trying to think what that might be. "Oh?"

Janet leans forward with a huge, bright smile and envelops her in a fierce hug. " _Congratulations_."

  


* * *

  



End file.
